Method of treating vegetable material



2,730,14s METHOD OF TREATING VEOETAELE MATERIAL Carlo Matarrese;Fliislih'g', N. Y.

No Drawing. Application start. 18, 1954,

Serial No. 463,053

5 Claims. (Cl. 146222) This invention relates to a method of treatingvarious vegetable materials, and is a continuation-in-part of theinventions disclosed in my application Serial No. 602,492, filed June30, 1945, now Patent No. 2,483,472, granted October 4, 1949, and myapplication Serial No. 79,384, filed March 3, 1949, for Combination FoodGrinding, now Patent No. 2,691,997, granted October 19, 1954.

An object of the invention is to provide a method for treating variouskinds of vegetable materials, includ ing the leaves, bark and roots ofsaid materials so as to separate the solid matter from the liquidmatter. The method includes the separation of the pulp from the juice orthe pits or seeds from the pulp or the juice of various fruits andvegetables; the extraction of liquid nicotine from green leaf tobacco,the separation of the juice or liquids from various flowers, such asrose and carnation leaves; or the grinding of the pits of various fruitsand vegetables while at the same time separating the pits from the pulpand skins of the fruits or vegetables during grinding.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method for treatingvarious vegetable materials which includes the step of varying thetreatment of said materials whereby to obtain difierent products.

An additional object includes the step of simultaneously performing agrinding and/r grating and/or pulverizing of the materials beingtreated.

An additional object is to provide a treatment of materials whereby onlythe juice and the finely pulverized material may be received, with thepulp or solid ma terial being separated therefrom.

An additional object is to provide a method wherein the pits of fruits,such as olives or cherries, may be ground and separated from thepulverized pulp and skins, if any.

Other objects will be disclosed hereinafter throughout thespecification.

As indicated above, the present method includes the employment of themachines of my Patent 2,483,472 and my Patent No. 2,691,997, abovenoted.

It has been determined that by employing the present method in thetreatment of green leaves, a larger percentage of liquid extract may beobtained than from any other known process or apparatus. The process,therefore, as applied to green leaves of all kinds, separates the juicefrom the fibrous or leafy material, which latter may be ground to anydegree of fineness.

Products which may be treated by my improved process include greentobacco leaves, coffee beans, meats, cheese, vegetables of all types,various roots, bark, and the leaves of various other plants and trees.

In treating olives to obtain olive oil, the olives are placed in themachine of my invention as disclosed in Patent No. 2,483,472 or myPatent No. 2,691,997 above identified. A door, preferably a sliding doorsuch as shown in my Patent No. 2,483,472, is adjusted so as to be ofjust the proper size to permit the pits to pass a United StatcsPaterit2,730,148 Patented-Jan. 10, 1 956 fllerethrough- 'Both the pits ,and thegrated material pass through the same slot;v

. A combined, grinding, grating, or shredding operation may beperformed-by utilizing teeth suehasshown in Figures 6-13 of myapplication Serial No. 79,384. It is-{very important that the materialbe subjected to teeth of this type whichare arranged in at least onespiral,- as shownin Figures 6 and 11. The points of the teeth performthe-grating operation. The inclined edges of the teeth shred the.material. Only the teeth adjacent the periphery .of the rotatingtool'perforin the pulverizing operation. Pulv'erizingtakesplace when theopening, such as the opening 38 in my Patent 2,483,472 or the opening100 in my Patent No. 2,691,997 have been entirely 'closed by the doors62 and 101 respectively. When these doors have been entirely closed, thematerial finds its way past the periphery of the grinding tool and outof the opening which is closed by the plug 9 (the said plug having beenremoved) of my Patent 2,483,472, or out of the opening which is behindthe grinding face, as shown in my Patent No. 2,691,997. The fan bladeson the backs of the rotary tools in both instances assist in themovement of the pulverizing material and any liquids which have beenextracted through the said opening. 1

It will be understood that the pulverizing step takes place only when,as indicated above, the pivoted or sliding doors in front of the rotarytool have been closed or substantially closed, i. e., the exit doors.

Various other fruits may be similarly treated.

In the treatment of all undried leafy products such as the petals ofroses and carnations and the leaves of tobacco, the process includes thefollowing: The leaves as they come from the plant, and without anypreliminary treatment, are placed in either machine, and all openings infront of the combined shredder, grinder and pulverizer are closed. i Iprefer to use the grinding face such as shown in my Patent No.2,691,997. However, the lower door, such as 101 in my said Patent No.2,691,997, may be slightly opened in order that the operation may be acontinuous one. Upon the starting of the machine, the material isground, grated and shredded, and finally pulverized, according to theamount of opening as adjusted by the door 101. If the door is left open,a larger amount of fibrous material will be of coarser texture, and thejuice will flow between the periphery of the grinder and the insidecircular wall of the casing to the opening behind the grinder, where itis caught by a suitable receptacle placed beneath said opening.

In any of the previous processes, and as part of the present invention,I contemplate attaching to the first machine a second machine whereby torepeat the operation by performing the same steps in a second machine,thereby simultaneously subjecting the material which has been in thefirst machine to a second series of steps the same as performed in thefirst machine. The second machine will eliminate the step of pressingthe material from the first machine.

The above description discloses several embodiments of the invention,and specific language has been employed. It will, nevertheless, beunderstood that no limitations of the scope of the invention are therebycontemplated, and that various alterations and modifications may be madesuch as would occur to one skilled in the art to which the inventionrelates, except as set forth in the claims.

I claim:

1. The process of reducing vegetable material in large pieces to afinely divided state which comprises confining one or more of said largepieces only in a defined area, repeatedly chipping particles of varioussizes from the outer surface portions of said large pieces at aperipheral portion of said area, retaining-the larger of those piecesthus chipped in said area and removing the smaller particles only ofthose thus chipped from said area, the said smaller particlesbeingremoved from said area at a'peripheral portion of said area spacedfrom that at 5 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATESPATENTS Wimmer l Oct. 24, 1905 Montag Nov. 16, 1909 Buensod Jan. 5, 1926Carter June 16, 1936 Eskew Aug. 9, 1949 Matarrese Oct. 4, 1949 Berkmanet al Sept. 11, 1951 Matarrese Oct. 19, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS GreatBritain 1911

